As I finished my article for the Express & Star’s website a day earlier than usual – in order to fit in with a new schedule – I started thinking about what I could talk about for Thursday’s slot this week.

In the end, I started looking at how the club could be improved, but under the restraints that we already have in place. Whilst most clubs would be glad to have world class players like Cristiano Ronaldo playing for them, Aston Villa have been restricted – and continue to be hamstrung – by financial circumstances that make mega-star captures a fairly unlikely outcome.

So, with that in mind, I started thinking about who Villa might look at during January, even though it isn’t even November yet. Still, with Christmas decorations appearing in shops all over the world, I figured I may as well look ahead at transfers rather than previewing the game at the weekend.

Ask a Villa fan where the team could be best improved, and I imagine you’d get a universal answer of “defence”. Sure, defence is only one aspect of what needs to be examined – the defensive midfielder role being another key area – but I think we’d probably agree that defence has been our achilles heel under Paul Lambert.

Lambert has already come out and stated that despite the injury to Jores Okore – a player I earmarked as key to Villa’s success-or-failure this season – he is unlikely to replace him in the January transfer window.

The reality, however, is that such words don’t necessarily preclude the potential of signing another defender, rather they point out that Okore isn’t going to be replaced as first choice by A N Other capture – something most fans would agree is fairly sensible.

However, Villa could certainly do with a solid midfielder at centre half. Whilst Ron Vlaar has been about as good as one would have expected considering his price tag, the injury to Okore has left the team fairly light at the back.

Sure, Nathan Baker and Ciaran Clark have both managed to secure appearances for the club but, in honest terms, I still consider both to be more second-choice than first-choice, even for a club like Villa. So with that in mind, I figure that Villa could do a lot worse than look at some key attributes for a defender who could augment the team.

Whilst Villa seem to have been recently buying giants up front – Niklas Helenius and Libor Kozak being the two “big” players captured up front this season – the team haven’t been particularly tall at the back in recent years.

Which isn’t to say that the likes of Ron Vlaar or Jores Okore are short – far from it – but rather that a 6ft 3 defender can be as imposing as a 6ft 3 striker, albeit in a different fashion.

So, with that in mind, I wanted to look at a player who I believe could be acquired for the club – Alexander Milošević.

Milošević is a surname fairly familiar to Villa fans given the signing of former Serbian striker Savo, though the player I am looking at currently plays for the Sweden U21 national team rather than Serbia, despite originally representing Serbia at U17 level.

What should be stressed at this point is that Milošević is not a player I am suggesting is going to fix all of Villa’s defensive issues, rather he is a player who could augment the squad. Just as Lambert has stated that he doesn’t want to replace Okore, so Milošević could well add to the team’s squad depth without directly replacing a recent signing.

Milošević has already attracted interest in recent years from Premier League clubs, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up in England sooner rather than later. However, as we have seen with the aforementioned Okore, Villa can get hold of highly-rated youngsters if they move quickly, beating Chelsea to his signature as they did earlier this season.

Signing a player from AIK Stockholm, Milošević’s current club, shouldn’t be impossible in wage terms, despite their position historically challenging towards the top of the Allsvenskan, the Swedish top flight. However, recent years have seen AIK having more modest expectations, something Villa fans will be similarly accustomed too.

So whilst I haven’t gone into detail about the potential of another young player that could be on the club’s radar, I wanted to use this as an opportunity for you to ask who you think is realistically achievable in January, and if Milošević is the kind of player who might excite Villa fans if he did arrive at the club in the future.

To finish, here’s his first goal scored for AIK against GIF Sundsvall.

*** DISCLAIMER *** – Scout & About does not represent inside knowledge of any present or future deal being struck with the aforementioned player and only serves to highlight a potentially suitable player that the author feels could be a realistic target for the club.

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